Eeeeeeeh.
How do you figure that? I posit that as soon as the roman empire made Christianity the official religion of the empire, that's when things went very sideways, and that the orthodox church is very likely the closest, most correct successor of the church of the first century. Even if I'm not nor will ever likely be orthodox myself.
I was just referencing the great schism which birthed Roman Catholicism and, in turn, led to the Protestant reformation. Probably too broad of a statement to make but it is recognized as the official split of the East and West ( Latins).
I will say this: If the Church is the body of Christ (it is) and Hebrews 13:8 is true (it is) then the Church should be unchanged and never required a re-formation and that Church should exist today (it does).
I'm not so sure about that. The new testament constantly talks about the church as the bride of Christ, but, since it is full of humans, and taking another analogy, the vine, there are branches that need to be pruned.
THE church exists, and it is us, but most of the various denominations are abominations these days and, yet again, it starts to come down to the individual, as it seems to have always been.
I'm not particularly sold on there needing to be a large, contiguous, samey-same body of followers of Christ.
I love these conversations and I think it's reasonable to hold to what you've just said, especially living in the modern West.
I am certainly not blessed to engage in heavy apologetics... as tempting as it is, but allow me to leave some books that flesh these ideas out. They are pretty easy to get through.
I believe Elder Cleopa is soon to be glorified as a Saint if he hasn't already.
This is what makes me shake me head about the orthodox churches. As if humans can venerate other humans above and beyond others... 😮💨
I get it. A lot of the "saints" are pretty amazing people, but... So what?
Thank you for the list. I'll add them to my extremely long list of books that I'll likely never read... 😅
nostr:nprofile1qqsqdzwltpr635ehdzfd52tz947qlhq77x2c7j7yguwep9n258k2nuspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsz9thwden5te0dehhxarj9ehhsarj9ejx2a30qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9u4eqt7a have you gone to your local parish?
No. There is one orthodox church that I'm aware of in my area. And... I'm really not sure I should go since I'm really not comfortable with much of the, uh, service (is it a mass? 😅) theologically.
I'd recommend a Saturday night Vespers to start. It is a shorter prayer service compared to divine liturgy and a good way to make an introduction with your priest/ask questions.
Side note: My wife and I are new catechumens, she came from a non denominational/pentecostal church and I grew up as secular as it gets...so I do understand the uncomfortableness of it all.
It takes quite a lot of work to do that, and I very much respect that. Even if it's not something I'm willing to do.
Thank you for the recommendation. I may go just out of curiosity.
